After the Dust Settles
by Blind Magdalene
Summary: AU, 3 Days after the Battle of Hogwarts, Mother-Daughter talk is needed when Ron dies after the Battle and Hermione wastes away pining for her lost love.


(A/N I should say, when I read the series, before the movies, and I love Maggie Smith as McGonagall, but I always saw our dear Minnie as a late 30, younger 40ish looking woman with ebony(not grey) hair with a few worry lines. With the attitude and such that Maggie Smith personified, just in the other body. K. So now you see the McGonagall that I see.

This is set after Deathly Hallows(sans Epilogue) after the Battle of Hogwarts, AlternateReality)

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><p><strong>After the Dust Settles<strong>

It was the third day after the Battle of Hogwarts. Renovations were already underway, trying to rebuild the once powerful castle, attempting to rebuild the completely demolished Gryffindor and Astronomy towers, while filling in holes in the walls from dark curses, among the worst damaged. Many were lost in the war – Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin, Fred Weasley, the Creevey brothers, but nothing prepared them for the sudden loss of Ronald Weasley the day after from a dark curse that took a day to activate.

No one was sure how to react, the Weasleys openly mourning the loss of their sons; Harry Potter stayed half-in his rooms, half with the Weasleys. No one had seen Hermione Granger since his heart stopped.

As the unofficial Headmistress(she would sure as hell make sure that didn't change), Minerva McGonagall was worried about her former student who refused visitors. Minerva walked through the Great Hall, the makeshift infirmary, where the survivors of the war used as their base of operations, as she looked for Poppy. She noticed her over the youngest Weasley, who had just woken from a coma. Poppy smiled tiredly at Minerva as she approached.

"Almost all will be up and about today. No one else is close to death, all I have left are broken bones and broken hearts." Minerva nodded, smiling slightly.

"That is good news. Tell me, Poppy, did you treat Miss Granger before her voluntary isolation?" Poppy's eyebrows raised and a surprised look crossed her face.

"She was injured? I was busy with Mister Weasley, I never noticed, It mustn't have been that bad! I figured she would grab a blood replenishing potion…" She blinked before leaving Ginny, where she merely rested now. Before Minerva blinked, potions were being pushed into her arms and she was shoved towards what was left of the Entrance Hall. She looked down at the pile, and then shot a questioning glance at Poppy, who was already bustling at another bed.

Minerva realized Poppy expected her to see to Hermione, and heal her if needed, judging by the potions. Minerva sighed and levitated the bottles into her satchel that she took to carrying since the battle, before leaving the Great Hall, heading for a shortcut to the seventh floor, remembering that Hermione was staying in the Room of Requirement. Everyone else was in the Hufflepuff and Slytherin Dorms, both untouched by the war, the students already have been sent home before Voldemort had arrived.

Minerva reached the wall and paced thrice before it, the door appearing before her. She stepped forward and knocked thrice on the door, allowing the young woman the semblance of privacy. There was no answer so she rapped on the door again.

"Miss Granger, let me in, or I will be coming in myself. I will not allow you to waste away in these rooms." When there was no response, Minerva withdrew her wand, and with a silent Alohamora, she was striding into the empty sitting room with an attached kitchenette. She saw the bedroom door cracked open so she strode in without knocking, and was befuddled when she realized it was also empty.

"Miss Granger?" She supposed she missed the kitchen, but when she moved to leave the room, she heard a groan from the direction of the bathroom. She was immediately at the door, and had to swallow as she looked down at her cub lying on the floor. Minerva walked briskly over and dropped to her knees, pulling the unconscious girl into her arms, standing uncomfortably, adjusting to the new weight (which, to her displeasure, was far less than she expected) and went back to the bedroom to lie the young woman on the bed. She used her wand to change the dirty clothes into pajamas and summoned her house elf. A small house elf appeared next to her.

"I need food for her right now, Brobadignagadin." The house elf nodded.

"Would you like anything else, Mistress?" Minerva started to shake her head, and then changed her mind.

"A pot of tea would suffice, with two settings. Thank you, Brobadignagadin." She added, and Brobadignagadin's ears reddened, before he nodded and disappeared. Minerva walked into the bathroom and wet a washcloth. She went back into the room and sat on the edge of the bed, laying the washcloth on her cub's forehead. She pulled the satchel off of her hip, pulling out a blood replenishing potion. She removed her cloak, laying it on the back of a nearby chair that appeared when needed. She supposed she'd sit in it when she was done. She heard the woman moan incoherently and shift on the bed, so she also pulled out a pain and fever reducing potion just in case. She sat next to the sleeping woman on the bed and started administering the potions without trouble. She sat there with one of her cubs' hands in her own, watching Miss Granger's relaxed sleeping face.

Brobadignagadin appeared next to her with a tray full of food. He placed it carefully on a table that appeared next to the bed, and a tea tray appeared on another table. The house elf looked up at Minerva.

"Would you like me to feed her, Mistress?" Minerva shook her head in the negative. She spoke softly, as to not wake Hermione before she was ready.

"I'll feed her, but I would appreciate it if you prepared tea quietly." Brobadignagadin grinned and nodded, bustling into action. Minerva sat next to the girl and fed the sleeping girl, making sure it was going down safely. After tea was made and Hermione fed, Brobadignagadin stood next to the bed.

"Is there anything else, Mistress?" Minerva smiled softly, adjusting a strand of hair on the girls forehead, wishing that she had a daughter like Hermione, but alas she had never procreated.

"No thank you, Brobadignagadin. That will be all.

Around a half hour later, she stirred awake, blinking owlishly as she focused on Minerva.

"Professor?" She asked weakly. Minerva smiled, dropping the hand clutched within her own to the bed.

"Miss Granger. How do you feel?" She focused on getting the woman's wrist's pulse, which was finally beating normally.

"I feel better physically. Emotionally…" She shook her head, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She turned to avoid Minerva's piercing gaze, but Minerva gently grasped Hermione's chin and held her gaze.

"You never get over the death of a loved one. The memories will never subside. You will associate things with them, and will be the first thought of your day for years." She let go of Hermione's chin and picked up her cup of tea. She took a sip.

"Slowly, painfully, but the pain will fade in time, and though Ronald will want you to never forget him, he won't want you to live unhappily." Minerva spoke with a knowing glint in her eye, as she tried not to cry herself. Hermione felt tears coursing down her cheeks, the words giving her comfort. Minerva sighed, smiling softly as Hermione eyes her questioningly.

"I lost Augustus, my dear husband, on a raid against Grindewald. That man had been my world." She took another sip of her now cooling tea. "Albus was my best friend. Had been since I graduated. You don't get over it, I never have. You don't have a choice, but to move on, after all, Death is but the next greatest adventure." Minerva had a twinkle in her eye that Hermione recognized from Dumbledore. Hermione smiled, and accepted the cup of tea offered.

They sat there for the rest of the day, sitting and merely chatting, rebuilding their previously thought lost lives, to make a better future.


End file.
